Fetchply Docs
Inbox and support

Take over a conversation

Manage availability, claim or reassign a handoff, reply as a person, and resolve or reopen support work.

Set availability

Use the dashboard availability control to set your support state to Online or Away. When a visitor asks for a person, the agent connects them and writes a short confirmation that matches your current availability: it tells them a teammate is joining shortly when you are online, or that their message has been passed along when you are away. There is no handoff message to write — the agent handles the wording for you.

Open Needs agent

Filter Inbox by Needs agent. Open the conversation and review the visitor's request before claiming it.

Assign it

Select Assign to me, or choose an eligible teammate from Conversation details. Assignment prevents teammates from unknowingly handling the same chat. Only teammates who still have reply access are listed.

Reply

Send a message or supported attachment. The tabs across the top of the reply box switch what it does: Reply writes to the customer, Note leaves a private note for your team, Shortcuts inserts a Quick Reply you saved earlier, and Knowledge Base inserts a saved Instant Answer. For Widget, WhatsApp, and Instagram, select the microphone to record a voice reply: the reply box becomes a recording bar where you can pause, review, discard, or send. Type / at the start of an empty reply to choose any of these with the keyboard.

In the chat widget, your replies show your display name, and your profile photo when you have set one under Account settings, so customers can see a real person answered.

Release or resolve

Choose Release conversation to return control to AI. Select Resolve when the visitor's current issue is complete. The history remains available under Resolved.

A resolved conversation can be reopened when follow-up is necessary. Manual reopening assigns it to you. A new visitor message reopens it automatically under AI handling across the widget, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Slack.

When a visitor asks for a person, the conversation appears under Needs agent immediately, but the AI keeps answering while the visitor waits. Automated replies stop only after a teammate is assigned. This applies to the widget and connected chat channels, including follow-up questions and exact saved answers. Releasing the conversation returns new messages to AI handling.

Team members need conversations.view to see chats and conversations.reply to take over and reply.

If another teammate resolves or reassigns the conversation while you are typing, Fetchply keeps your draft but disables sending. Reopen the conversation or ask the new assignee to release it; your text is restored when you can reply again.

Opening an unread conversation marks its visible messages as read immediately. New messages that arrive while that conversation remains open are also treated as read. Fetchply keeps the timeline in sent order, including messages recovered after a brief reconnect.

The timeline also shows date separators, resolution and reopen events, automated actions, and storefront pages the customer viewed. The header badge shows whether AI is replying or stopped. For WhatsApp, it also shows the remaining 24-hour free-form reply window.

When the agent recommended products or looked up an order, the timeline shows the same cards the customer saw. Product recommendations appear as a row of cards with the image, price, any sale or stock label, and available options; drag the row or use its arrows to see the rest, and select See details on a card to open the full product view with its description. Order lookups appear as an order card with the status, payment and fulfillment state, totals, and any tracking details. If a card looks empty or plain, refresh the conversation; the card needs the page to finish loading.

Private notes

Select the Note tab above the reply box to leave an internal note on the conversation. The box turns amber while you write so you always know the text is internal, and saved notes appear in the timeline on an amber card marked Private note with the teammate's name. Teammates viewing the conversation see new notes instantly.

Notes are strictly internal:

  • The customer never receives a note in chat, by email, or on any connected channel.
  • Notes are left out of emailed replies, chat transcripts, CSV exports, and the developer API.
  • The AI never reads notes, so a note cannot influence automated answers.

You can add notes to open and resolved conversations alike, which makes them useful for recording the outcome of finished work, flagging VIP customers, or handing context to the next teammate. Notes do not mark a conversation unread and do not change its position in the inbox.

Mention a teammate

Type @ in the Note tab and pick a teammate from the list that appears; keep typing after the @ to narrow it. Only teammates with reply access to this agent can be mentioned. When the note is saved, the mentioned teammate:

  • joins the conversation, so it appears under their participant filters and future customer messages count as unread for them,
  • gets a notification (in the bell menu, and in Slack if your workspace has notifications connected) with a link straight to the conversation,
  • sees their name highlighted on the note card, as does everyone else on the team.

Mentions come from the final text: if you delete the @name before saving, nobody is notified. Mentioning someone in a reply is not supported, because replies go to the customer.

Working a conversation together

A conversation has one owner, but the whole team can help:

  • Join a conversation. When a chat is owned by a teammate, the reply box offers Join conversation instead of locking you out. Joining lets you reply alongside the owner; ownership does not move, and the owner is not interrupted.
  • Transfer a conversation. To hand the chat over entirely, open the actions menu at the right end of the reply box and choose Transfer to teammate, or pick the new owner under Status and owner in the details panel. The new owner is notified and the conversation moves to them.
  • Mention a teammate in a private note when you want their eyes on it without changing who owns it.

Magic Reply

Magic Reply is an AI co-pilot for the reply box. Open AI Tools at the right end of the composer tabs to:

  • Draft a reply from the conversation history and your agent's trained content. The draft lands in the reply box for you to review, edit, and send; nothing goes to the customer until you press Send.
  • Improve your draft: make it friendlier, make it shorter, fix spelling and grammar, or translate it into the language the customer is writing in.

When the latest message in an open conversation is from the customer and your reply box is empty, a Suggest a reply chip appears above the composer; one click drafts an answer for you.

Each Magic Reply run uses message credits, the same way an automated AI answer does. Drafts are written in your voice as a teammate and never refer to themselves as an AI.

Magic Reply tips

  • Drafts are grounded in your trained content. If the agent has little training material about the question, the draft will say what it would need to check; review it before sending.
  • Magic Reply is limited to a few runs per minute per teammate to protect your message credits. If you hit the limit, wait a moment and try again.

Customer details and email conversations

Use Conversation details to add or update the customer's name, email, and phone number. You can add searchable tags, include teammates as participants, or change the owner. These changes stay with the conversation.

You can also attach one or more shared labels from the Labels section at the top of Conversation details. Select Add label to apply an existing label, or type a new name and choose Create "name" to add and apply it in one step. Labels appear on the conversation row and in the left-side inbox filters. Use them for team workflows such as Follow up, VIP, or Refund review.

To stop an abusive or unwanted visitor, open the conversation header's More actions menu and choose Block visitor. This uses the same blocked visitor list as Widget → AI rules, so the block also appears there. A blocked visitor's previous conversation stays available for review. Choose Unblock visitor from the same menu whenever they should be allowed to contact the agent again.

For a complete overview of how email works as a support channel, see Email replies.

The actions menu next to Resolve in the conversation header holds the email options for the conversation:

  • Email chat transcript sends the full conversation history to the customer. Confirm the customer email, adjust the suggested subject if needed, and send.
  • Set email subject chooses the subject used whenever a reply is emailed to this customer, including replies sent while they are offline. This replaces the subject box that used to sit above the message box, so the subject stays consistent across every emailed reply.

Select the plus button in the inbox list to start a conversation from a customer email address. For an existing widget conversation, Fetchply sends an agent reply in chat while the customer is online. If the customer is offline and an email is available, the reply is sent by email. Every emailed reply includes a timeline of the recent conversation history, showing who said what and when, so the customer has the context that led to it. To keep the email readable, it shows only the last 10 messages, and an unusually long single message is shortened. If no email is available, choose either to add one or send in chat only.

Email delivery supports text replies and file attachments. Files you attach in the reply box are sent along with the email, up to 5 files and 10 MB in total per reply; if the files are larger than that, send them in chat instead or remove some. Voice recordings cannot be emailed. A chat-only reply remains in the conversation and is not emailed.

When a customer answers an emailed reply from their own inbox, their answer is added back to the same conversation and appears as a new customer message. From then on, your follow-up replies are delivered into that same email thread in the customer's mailbox (with a "Re:" subject) instead of starting a new email conversation. If the conversation was resolved, it reopens automatically, and you are notified the same way as for any new message. To keep conversations safe, Fetchply only accepts replies sent from the customer email saved on the conversation, and automatic responses such as out-of-office messages are ignored. Only the customer's newest message is added; quoted history and email signatures are removed so the conversation stays readable.

Files the customer attaches to their email reply appear in the conversation alongside their message. Common file types are supported: images, PDF, Word documents, plain text, and audio or video clips. Up to 5 files of at most 10 MB each are kept per reply; unsupported or oversized files are left out while the message itself still arrives. Inline images from email signatures are ignored on purpose.

Troubleshooting

Release conversation does not change the chat

If Fetchply cannot release the conversation, an error appears below the message box. Retry the action once. If a teammate changed the conversation at the same time, refresh the inbox to load its latest state before trying again.

Reassignment says the teammate is no longer eligible

The teammate's access changed after the list loaded. Retry from Conversation details and select a teammate who is still shown. If nobody is available, leave the conversation unassigned or contact the workspace owner.

The visitor still receives AI replies after requesting a person

This is expected while the conversation is waiting under Needs agent. Select Assign to me, or assign an eligible teammate, to stop automated replies and route new visitor messages only to the assigned teammate. If the conversation was released, assign it again before replying as a person.

Resolve or reopen reports that the conversation changed

Another teammate completed an action first. Fetchply keeps the latest server state and refreshes the active list. Review the new state before trying again; repeated clicks do not create duplicate reopen events.

I can read but cannot reply

You may have view-only access, the conversation may be resolved, or it may belong to another teammate. Ask the workspace owner for reply access or ask the current assignee to release or reassign the conversation. Your unsent draft remains available while the conversation stays selected.

A reply fails after I press Send

Fetchply keeps the message in the reply box and shows the reason below it. Retry once after confirming your internet connection. If the conversation was closed or reassigned, refresh the inbox and follow the action shown. If the message still cannot be sent, give the workspace owner the time of the failure so they can investigate it without losing your draft.

A voice reply cannot be recorded or sent

Allow microphone access in your browser and select Try again in the recording bar. Voice replies are available only for Widget, WhatsApp, and Instagram conversations. For WhatsApp, also confirm the 24-hour reply window is open. If a channel is disconnected, reconnect it before recording again.

If Fetchply reports that the recording could not be read, the clip was cut short before it finished saving. This usually happens when the browser tab is closed, the page is refreshed, or the microphone is disconnected while recording. Record the message again and wait for the play button and waveform to appear before sending.

The inbox shows Syncing

Syncing can appear briefly while live updates reconnect. Conversations continue to refresh automatically during this time. If it remains visible, keep the dashboard tab open, confirm your internet connection, and refresh the page. You can continue reading and replying while Fetchply reconnects.

Quick Replies do not open when I type slash

Place the cursor in an empty reply box, then type /. Use the arrow keys to move, Enter to choose, and Escape to close. If there are no saved replies, create one from the Quick Replies menu first.

A teammate I want to mention is not in the @ list

The mention list only shows teammates who have reply access to this agent. Ask the workspace owner to grant them reply access on the Team page; they appear in the list right away.

A mentioned teammate says they were not notified

Mentions notify through the notification bell (and Slack when connected). Ask the teammate to check that Mentions are not muted in their notification preferences, and confirm the @name was still in the note when it was saved: a deleted mention does not notify. Mentioning yourself never creates a notification.

I joined a conversation but cannot reply

Joining requires reply access, and the conversation must still be open. If it was resolved after you opened it, reopen it first. If the reply box still says the conversation is owned by another teammate, refresh the page; your join may not have completed.

A note could not be saved

If a note fails, it shows Not saved with a Retry action and your text is kept. Retry once after confirming your connection. Notes only need view access to read and reply access to write, so if saving is refused, ask the workspace owner about your reply access.

Magic Reply says the workspace is out of message credits

Magic Reply uses the same message credits as automated AI answers. When the workspace runs out, drafting is paused until the plan renews or more credits are added, while normal replies you write yourself keep working.

A Magic Reply draft is in the wrong language

The draft follows the language of the customer's latest message. If the customer mixed languages, write or edit the draft yourself, or use Translate to customer's language after typing your reply.

The customer is offline and email cannot be sent

Confirm that the email address in Conversation details is correct. If Fetchply reports that email delivery is unavailable, choose Send in chat only to keep the reply in the conversation, then ask the workspace owner to check email delivery before retrying.

A customer's email reply does not appear in the conversation

Check that the reply was sent from the same email address saved in Conversation details; replies from any other address are not added, so nobody can write into a conversation from a forwarded email. Automatic responses, such as out-of-office notices, are also ignored on purpose. If the address matches and the reply still does not appear after a few minutes, ask the workspace owner to confirm that incoming email replies are set up for your workspace.

A file from a customer's email reply is missing

The customer's message arrives even when a file cannot be kept. A file is left out when it is larger than 10 MB, when its type is not supported (for example installers or archives), or when more than 5 files were attached to one email. Very large emails may not be accepted at all; ask the customer to send files under the limits or share a download link instead. Inline signature images are always ignored.

A WhatsApp reply is blocked

The customer's 24-hour free-form reply window has closed. Use an approved WhatsApp template or wait for the customer to send a new message. The countdown in the conversation header updates automatically.

If Fetchply says the customer has not messaged your WhatsApp number yet, the conversation holds no incoming WhatsApp message, so only an approved template can start it. This can also happen with a conversation that was started from your side. Send a template, and normal replies become available as soon as the customer answers.

The transcript email cannot be sent

Add a valid customer email, make sure the conversation contains at least one message, and retry. You can edit the suggested subject before sending. An empty conversation cannot produce a transcript.

An emailed reply to an offline customer does not show the whole conversation

This is expected for long conversations. To keep the email readable and reliable to send, an emailed reply includes only the last 10 messages, and an unusually long single message is shortened with a trailing ellipsis. The customer still receives your full reply and enough recent context to follow it. If you need to send the complete history, use Email chat transcript from the actions menu instead.